Verfremdung
Brecht regarded Verfremdung as a political intervention into society's behaviours. Verfremdung's main objective is to help free society from their socially constructed perceptions, allowing the spectator to recognise the issues in the play whilst simultaneously making it unfamiliar (Mumford, 2009, p.61). The Verfremdung effect helps the actor and the spectator demonstrate and empathise with the way our behaviour is a social construct. Verfremdung does not mean emotionless acting techniques, as Brecht expected his actors to attempt to engage the spectator with passion in the defamiliarisation/alientation process. (Verfremdung techniques are also known as alienation (Willet, 1964) and defamiliarisation (Mumford, 2009).
Activity
During the rehearsal of the play you could experiment with some or all of the below mentioned techniques and answer these questions in your logbooks.
Examples of Verfremdung techniques
Music is used to neutralise emotions through discordant tones. Where can you find examples of this and how is it realised on stage?
The songs comment on the action and are part of the social consciousness of the characters. Where can you find examples of this and how is it realised on stage?
Stage design:
At the play's opening the stage is bare ... and Mother Courage makes her utterly astonishing entrance. Harnessed like horses (the horse is already a casualty of war), Eilif and Swiss Cheese are pulling the covered wagon at the front of which their mother and sisters sits (Thomson, 1997, p.26).
Why is this stage design a Verfremdung effect? What area of the stage would you place the wagon for this scene and other scenes in the play to create a Verfremdung effect?
What audio visuals and film clips were used in the original production to show the world in flux? If a 21st century production decided to show a film backdrop of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan would this be appropriate and how would it defamiliarise the spectators?
Stage lighting was often rejected in favour of general house lights. What effect would this have on the play, the actors and spectators?
Scenes are changed in front of the spectators? Why is this a Verfremdung effect?
Tableaux is used to carefully organise grouping's that show social domination. Where can you find this in the play?
Chorus is an epic element. How has it been used in the play to demonstrate a point of view?
Explore props in the play from a Verfremdung perspective and see how they can also influence the epic action.
Satire and comedic elements are an integral feature of the play. Where can you find these and what purpose do they serve?
What is the purpose of historification in this play?
Verfremdung is a theatre of problem solving. Why is this so?
Learning task one
Complete this task in groups of six.
Brecht did not want his spectators to have similar emotions to the characters as he wanted to create tensions and intellectual challenges for his spectators. Your group is to rehearse Scene 8 where the triangular tale between Mother Courage, The Chaplin and The Cook occurs. Some students will be the actors, some the directors, and some the spectators. Everyone's task is to try to find ways to make sure that the spectators' emotions are different from those of the characters.
Questions that can help your rehearsal are:
What does Brecht want the spectator to think and feel during this scene?
What gestus can be created for The Chaplin and The Cook to create their individual attitudes to Mother Courage?
How will the characters depict their social and political status in this scene?Eg The Chaplin as the bourgeoisie intelligentsia, and The Cook as a coward by not telling Mother Courage ofEilif's death, Mother Courage as a women at the height of her prosperity.
To explore the scene you could rehearse it as:
a court reporter,
a melodrama .
Learning task two
Complete this task in groups of five.
This activity should only take one lesson. In groups of five rehearse the last two minutes of the play using any of the relevant Verfremdung effects your group think are relevant. Present your rehearsal to your peers and discuss and debate the effectiveness of your chosen effects.
Your group could:
perform with an awareness of being watched
speak out to the spectators
speak lines as if in quotation marks
occasionally speak stage directions
be critical of your character in action
change roles with another actor
employ robotic techniques
address spectators directly
ignore the spectators
instruct the spectators
make your spectators think why I have done this, not what am I going to do next?